Woman selling, donating excess breast milk

TIFFIN, Iowa, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- An Iowa woman, faced with a stockpile of breast milk, has created a stir by taking out a newspaper ad to try to sell it.

Her freezer is full of milk she pumped and her 4-month-old daughter refuses to drink from a bottle, Martha Heller of Tiffin said. She took out the ad because, "I'd much rather a baby use it, because at some point we'll have to throw it away," she told The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette.

She said she tried to research law about the sale of breast milk -- but couldn't find any.

Heller also donates to the Mother's Milk Bank of Iowa, based at the University of Iowa. However, the 100 ounces she is trying to sell is what she had pumped before being screened and cleared for the milk bank.

Breast milk generally can be used up to six months if stored properly, said Linda Klein, a lactation consultant at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. But she warned that medical conditions and medications a mother takes can be passed through breast milk.